Inspired by the author's personal trauma in Europe and Mao's China, these two plays scrutinize the psychology of self-proclaimed heroes and the consequences of dangerous revolutions that turn literature and art into hostages of politics, fashions, and trends.
Gao Xingjian is a Chinese-born novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. An émigré to France since 1987, Gao was granted French citizenship in 1997. The recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature, he is also a noted translator (particularly of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco), screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter.